Radio Atlantic, IA – AM 1220

February 26th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

The Des Moines Register reports sexual assault charges against two Greenfield teens accused of sexually abusing a wrestling teammate, have been upgraded to Felonius Assault. The paper said in its Sunday edition, that the Iowa Attorney General’s Office is now handling the case against 18-year old’s Mikel Feick, and Jacob Schliessman, who were originally charged in January with second-degree sexual abuse. Felonious Assault is a Class C offense, punishable by up to 25-years in prison.

In January, Greenfield Police Chief Austin O’Brien said there were at least three victims of alleged hazing by students on the wrestling team at the Nodaway Valley High School, in Greenfield. Feick and Schliessman, who were members of the high school wrestling team were arrested. Their arrests followed an investigation that began January 4th, after a parent of a Nodaway Valley wrestler reported her son was the possible victim of an assault in the high school’s wrestling room in mid December. Police then learned of two other potential victims, but their investigation was complicated by witnesses who initially refused to come forward and make a statement to investigators. O’Brien says the assaults were “sexual in nature” and were “directly related to some type of punishment toward the victims.”

Nodaway Valley Superintendent Casey Berlau told the Register on Saturday, that two students at the school had been expelled last month, but he had declined to provide the names of the students. In January, WHO-TV reported that Feick, a 2011 state qualifier, was expelled from Nodaway Valley High School.